Mixed Age Football, Play and the Community

John arrives some forty five minutes early. His favourite bit is helping to inflate the goals.

He is nine with severe behavioural problems. His is a sad but not uncommon story. His dad left when he was young and his mother is embarrassed by his behaviour and is never seen out with him. The week before at an organised kid’s event he had tried to stab some older children with a pair of scissors and swore at the adults in charge before being taken home by the police.

His school have been notified, but they are well used to his behaviour as he has bitten, punched and kicked some of the teachers there.

The time putting up the goals and getting the equipment from the coaches’ cars is a chance to talk one on one with a bloke. Just chatting about what he did that day, but with their undivided attention.

He makes for the pitch where the younger ages play from 3-7. He helps out and organises the games and is fabulous with the younger ones.

One of the mums who help from the estate has started to take him to church on Sunday. The local community are beginning to look after John.

“I am sure those games instilled in me and my pals a sense of responsibility and a notion that one had to adhere to rules in life if you were not to spoil things for other people.

We had no referee to apply the rules of the game. When a goal was scored we restarted the game with a kick off from what passed as a centre spot. When a foul was committed, a free kick was taken and no one took umbrage. We seemed to accept that if anyone did not play by the rules of football, the game would be spoiled for everyone. Those games played without supervision taught us that you can’t go about doing just what you wanted because there are others to think of. Of course it was not a conscious thought at the time, but these kick-abouts on the bomb site taught us the rules of society and prepared us for life.”

Tommy Smith – ex Liverpool FC

Mike is small for seven but has magic feet. He plays for a local U7s team and scored all their goals the week before in an 8-0 win. He makes straight for the pitch where the older lads play. His eleven year old brother goes with him and when on the other side makes sure his younger sibling does not take the mick with some crunching tackles, although he inevitably does with some of his dribbling skills.

Mike is the youngest on this pitch with players as old as 19.

This pitch is for the serious players. They play flat out for 2 hours, taking individual water breaks when their team allow.

The coaches never need to interfere here as they look after their own game.

The offer of bib’s are shunned as the kids like to play in the kit worn by their heroes or whatever they want to wear.

"A lot of great players in the world will often say they don't know how they produced a piece of game changing magic - "It just happened", said with a shrug of the shoulders.

What has actually happened is that they have often merely instinctively carried out an act from the archives of tricks and instincts built up over the years of playing football with no boundaries in their formative years."
Oscar Egbogu - (Grew up playing street football in Africa and now plays 5-a-side in London)

Alex is ten and he makes for a pitch which attracts the mainly semi sporty. They enjoy football when it is a laugh but it is not top of their priority list. They take quite a few breaks and mess about on their bikes down the grassy slope.

Later the mums come from the estate with the little ones ages 2-3. They look after themselves and have the time of their lives kicking the balls around and making structures with coloured cones. The mums usually end up in goal or playing against the little ones. When the mums sit down for a rest and a natter the little ones invent their own games.

I watched one two year old build a semi circle of coloured marker cones before putting a ball on each. She then proceeded to kick the one at the end to try and topple the one opposite and so on.

One of the mums is Ania who is originally from Poland and sadly has no family left. She comes each week with her twin three year old son’s.

She has found it difficult to integrate into the local community but she and the boys have already made new friends through football. She is a big reader and other parents have been bringing her books for her and the boys’ home library.

At the end of session all the boys and girls help put the gear away and beg for a ball to be left out so they can then get in another 10 minutes play.

‘One of the major reasons children play football is for the human movement experience, the excitement and indescribable feeling that comes with it. That sense of play that used to pervade the physical activity of children has arguably been diminished. Sport has been dominated by a system where the needs and interests of adults have overtaken those of the children where they seem to make all the important decisions and are mostly devoted to winning rather than the process of developing our children. Give Us Back Our Game is a programme that is promoting that delight children used to experience in playing ‘their’ football, lost in the playgrounds many years ago. Through a games’ focus, children share success and failure; they learn how to trust each other and to care about each other’s ways of competing and making decisions. We need to develop children who are independent, value learning, are allowed to be creative and enjoy playing football. Adults need to ‘just let the kids play’ and realise that our children are going to learn more from that, then ‘getting taught’.

Dr Lynn Kidman, University of Worcester

Author of ‘Athlete Centered Coaching’

And the community has been good to me and the GUBOG football scheme. Locally the Town Council have got us a small grant and places to play for free. The local Housing Association has paid for a sports hall for us during the winter. The sports development officer from the district council has given his time free of charge each week. The major impact for me personally is that I am to start a new part-time job and the first regular income for three years.

The job is as an Inclusion Support Worker at the local secondary school.

I have few qualifications and there were many good candidates, but they were very impressed with the work I have done with the community football and hope that the skills I have learned from that will help with my job trying to keep pupils that would normally have been excluded, in the school system.

A number of the boys at the school with behavioural problems are already at the GUBOG football scheme playing and coaching, linked in with a local club and primary school as well as the GUBOG sessions.

There are no facilities so it is a case of having to use one of the big trees to spend a penny, which is very rare as they get so lost in play.

This is all about the community and using the equipment and space as they please. There is something for everyone and they just select who and where they want to play with some younger children playing with kids more than twice their age.

Learning social skills and football go hand in hand.

At a recent coaching workshop with an inner city council, I was explaining that in our experience the chief ingredients that have worked best are mixed ages, where kids can chose where and who they play with and allowing them to organise and referee their own games.

The twenty football development community coaches were in agreement but health and safety and child protection issues don’t allow this to happen.

So John won’t come early and put the goalposts up and help and coach the younger ones. Mike won’t be ‘megging’ the teenagers and his older brother will not be bringing him on the crossbar of his bike. The mums will stay at home and a chance to play footy with the tots is lost.

Meanwhile organised kids’ football is getting further and further away from how children socialise and play.

I had an email from one of the mum’s last night. She said she had been crying for the last hour. Her son of 11 who comes to the community sessions has just been dumped by the local club after playing in the same team since six. She was informed by text and had already paid the seasons fees.

No community, no play, no development and the adults get to decide.

The answer lies within the community itself. For generations they have sorted it out but have now had their wings clipped by checks and balances, fear and mistrust.

The time has now come to take off the shackles and let them manage themselves.

That includes places where kids can just go and play as well as proper community clubs where all children are catered from and have a cradle to grave policy where football becomes a healthy lifetime obsession.

What we are doing with the community scheme, which is being adopted by others around the UK, was a normal scene in parks, playgrounds and recreation grounds a generation or so ago. Sadly it is now deemed too risky for many organisations to adopt. These organisations are the ones that get the grants and have the power and the money but are only allowed to deliver a heavily diluted version of what is really needed.

“If children don't play, their minds don't grow. Play is where they learn to make their own decisions, trust their own judgement, set their own targets. It's where they learn to get along with other kids, meet triumph and disaster, and then come home for tea. Adults can help by helping them find somewhere to play, sorting out the boundaries, being handy with the plasters if something goes wrong. But otherwise we should leave them to it! This is why I support your work.”

Sue Palmer, author of 21st Century Boys and GUBOG supporter

(All names have been changed for this article)

Chapped Legs and Punctured Balls

I have a book, Chapped Legs & Punctured Footballs,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chapped-Legs-Punctured-Balls-Sportsbooks/dp/189980787X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1293363179&sr=8-1

The book is a light hearted look at growing up in North Devon in the 1960’s and playing football.

“A really wonderful and funny read that took me back to my experiences of playing football with my mates.”

Tony Adams (ex-Arsenal & England captain)

Here are a few quotes from the book;

On balls...

The Light Plastic Ball

Cheap ball that came in a cheap plastic net. Usually red, yellow or blue with black hexagons.

The ball was so light that even the slightest breeze could waft it to Venezuela and beyond.

Frowned on by all street footballers and usually only purchased by well meaning grandparents, existing on a small state pension. The remedy was a quick kick about in Granddad’s garden and a volley into the nearest rose bush. The punctured version of the ‘light plastic ball’ was actually better for street football but was a bugger to head.

On footwear...

School Shoes

Then there was the slip-on which was quiet trendy but one of the most dangerous weapons known to man, ranking somewhere between the Scud missile and the Atom bomb.

Many a goalkeeper has been dragged from his goal to the school nurse’s room after being hit by an Exercet Clark’s slip on.

The scenario has been played out on many a playground until the slip on became less trendy. A player through on goal hits a volley with all his might. He miss times the shot and his slip on travels faster than the speed of sound striking the hapless goalie on the forehead, knocking him backwards and unconscious into his goal. The miss hit ball meanwhile trickles innocuously over the line.

In fact some weak players purposefully got their mums to buy them slip ones and a size too big to boot so they flew off the foot at the players will. This gave them a certain street cred in the playground as to how many goalies they had permanently disfigured.

When the slip-on was at the height of fashion, the sky over the playground would become dark with the number of slip-ons in the air. Dinner ladies and teachers likened it to the blitz.

On clothing...

Duffle Coats

These were very popular for a time in the 60s. On a cold day everyone would turn up in a duffle coat, so to distinguish the two teams, one side wore their hoods up and the other side wore them down.

For the casual observer it looked like some obscure sect of Belgian, Trappist monks who brew their own wheat bear for sale in expensive supermarkets.

When it rained the steam coming from thirty or so duffle coats was enough to turn the pitch into a recreation of Jack the Ripper’s, smog filled London. By the end of a game the temperature inside a duffle coat reached levels, hotter than the sun. It was not uncommon for a winger, running down the flank at full pace to self combust.

On places to play...

The Bedroom

Many brothers shared bedrooms and this was paradise for those that wanted to play twenty four hour football.

With twin beds placed at each end of the room players took it in turns to try and score against your opponent by hitting the wall behind his bed. With a springy mattress to dive on the favourite game was Banks v Yashin. Lev Yashin was the Russian keeper who dressed like a referee, all in black. He became a bit of a cult figure in England during the 60s and vied for best keeper in the world with Banks.

The game varied from brothers to bedrooms with extra points awarded for hitting the wall and then rebounding to hit the keeper on the head. Extra points were also awarded by some for goals scored by various pieces of bedroom furniture such as the wardrobe.

A light ball was normally used as a Wembley Trophy in such a confined space could cause extensive collateral damage.

A heavy ball hitting the overhead light was also both spectacular and a regular occurrence that led to many thick ears around the country.

There was talk of a boy up Rayleigh Hill who while making a wonderful save, full stretch, ended up two floors below in the cellar, still on the bed and still clutching the ball. What we used to refer to as ‘a Lev Yashin moment.’

Would make an ideal Christmas present at just £5.99 available at all good bookshops or at most charity shops from 27^th December prices 50p!

Kindest Regards,

Paul Cooper

A hilariously funny and gloriously nostalgic book -- it made me cry with laughter. But it has a serious side too. So many of today's children just watch football on TV or 'play' it on games consoles and Wii machines. How will they learn the pure joy (and occasional pain) of real-life play, and all the physical and social skills it takes to make a real-life player? This stuff is caught, not taught. And without it, where will our country's next generation of world-beating footballers come from?

Sue Palmer

Author of 'Toxic Childhood' and patron of the Children's Football Alliance.

Football Football

I have had a great time over the last year working with Nigel Hargreaves the founder of Football Football and the former Head of Strategic Development at the FA. I have never met anyone with as much passion for getting the job done, he is very much a doer which will mean that the Football Football project will be a success.

We have had a number of different programmes all based on fun and games for 5-12 year old's. A particular favourite of mine was a 7 week programme which was based each week on a different country, Brazil, Spain, Holland etc - all games based on the philosophy and coaching of these countries. In gave the children a fabulous insight into how children from around the world learn the game. I really enjoy writing the programme and the various age specific games.

The Football Football programme is a new and innovative football participation programme for young people aged from 5 to 12. It launched on 8^th May 2010, initially in 6 pilot locations and then on Saturday 12^th June in around 28 purpose built football centres in the UK aimed at getting thousands more children aged between 5 and 12 playing football.

Football Football is a celebration of the children’s game, where every child plays for every second.

The greatest game on earth is given back to the children through fun based small sided games which give the players many more touches of the ball and more involvement in the games, while developing them technically, tactically and socially.

What you won’t find at Football Football are leagues, points, substitutes and some of the adult elements that have meant that many children just don’t get a chance to play or are always waiting on the sideline.

Football Football will reach thousands of children country wide, in inner cities and large towns where chances are often limited, e.g. participation in London is 50% lower than the national average. The programme, developed in partnership with The FA, helps address the 1.1m children who would like to join a team and the 2.4m children who want to improve their football skills.[1]

Football Football seeks to give children a life time love of the game by providing them with a full on football experience which takes the positive values of the games played by children in the streets, parks and playgrounds of past generations, but in a safe, fun environment with FA qualified coaches, a maximum of 10 players per coach and first class facilities.

Football Football provides children with an opportunity to play football their way and the excitement and the indescribable feeling that comes with it. They are fully engaged for the full sixty minutes and will benefit both physically and mentally from the experience

Football Football is the children’s own club where they can play, meet new friends, and learn new skills

The programme is being developed by Nigel Hargreaves, former Head of Strategic Development at The FA from 2001 to 2009, and Paul Cooper, Founder of the ‘Give us back our Game’ campaign

---

[1]The Football Association’s National Game Strategy 2008-2012

Games

Some games that may be of interest?

The Sneijder Game

Wesley Sneijder grew up in Utrecht’s notorious Ondiep. Even when he was at Ajax he stayed up as late as midnight to play on the streets
They played cage football. A concrete pitch measuring about 10x5m surrounded by meshed metal fencing.

“It made you quick and toughened you up Ajax even encouraged it as it helped with technique and balance."

This game replicates the conditions Sneijder faced, so use a pitch just 10x5m and play 3v3.
Use small goals so the players need to use better technique to get closer
So with little space you need to act and think quickly.
“At midnight I’d still be on the street playing football. It was crazy there were fights, the police came every day but you had to survive” Wesley Sneijder

The Transition Game

“Everybody says that set plays win most games, but I think it is more about transitions.” Jose Mourinho

Set up is as for a normal game.
Format 4v4 – 6v6

When a player scores he takes the ball from the goal and attacks the goal his team were defending.
This means everything changes and the attackers are in the defenders positions and defenders are in attackers positions.
Players have to react quickly and be aware of the change.
This highlights the whole transition process and should be like a light switch in players minds – concentration and react immediately.
Tip – have plenty of balls in the goal or by the side to allow a quick transition.

The Communication Game

Communication on the football pitch is very important, (as it is in the rest of your life) and it comes in a number of guises – verbal, gestures and body language.
Before you play the game, ask your players what they need to tell each other on the football pitch.

Asking – “Pete’s ball”, “Billy wants”.
Warnings – “Man on!”
Encouragement – “Well done Roger”, “Keep going team”
Additional information – “Turn”, “You have time”
The game
Play a normal game and then after a few minutes adapt the game by having no talking or calling at all.
You can progress this by making it even more difficult to communicate by not having bibs and banning pointing, nodding etc.
Go back to a normal game and at the end ask the players which was easier to play in and why. Also ask if communication skills are important on the football field and in other settings – home, school, friends etc. – and if we can communicate in ways other than verbally.

“Communication works for those who work at it” John Powell

Just Cruyff

JOHAN CRUYFF
The man and his words...

“At the moment, we have 12 or 14 mini-pitches, but our aim is to build 100. If you have 100 you have almost created a football school within the cities, towns and villages. Then we can begin to say we’ve brought street football back to life. It’s wonderful to see the educational side – teaching the kids to respect their opponents, to respect the ball. And it’s fantastic in one very special sense – integration. (on his mini pitch project in Holland)
People talk about Amsterdam being a city of 30 languages, 30 religions, all kinds of diversity. How do you communicate? Football helps. We’re not just talking about the kids; we’re talking about the parents who talk to each other when they watch the kids. All sorts of things start happening.”

"For all their general concern about a decline in technique, Cruyff and Bergkamp argue that flair still flourishes at the very highest level. "In Barcelona, I see Messi, Bojan, Iniesta and Sergi Busquets, who's so fantastic to watch,'' Cruyff said.”In the Premier League there are a lot of good players like [Theo] Walcott and Van Persie.''
The emergence of such players encouraged Cruyff to believe that Total Football could live in the tactical modern world . "Yes! Why not? Its 11 v 11, the field is the same size. The biggest change is that a lot of people paid attention to the physical side and forgot the technical side"

“Football is a game you play with your brain. The game consists of different elements: technique, tactics and stamina. But the main thing is tactics, insight, trust and daring.”

“I love football – particularly beautiful football.”

“Football is simple. But the hardest thing is to play football in a simple way.”

“It’s better to fail with your own vision rather than following another man’s vision.”

“Each disadvantage has its advantage.”

“I never practice tricks. I play very simply. That’s what it’s all about. Playing simple football is the hardest thing. That’s the problem of all trainers. Simple play is also the most beautiful. How often do you see a pass of more than 40 metres when 20 metres is enough? Or a one-two in the penalty area when there are seven people around you when a simple wide pass around the seven would be a solution? The solution that seems the simplest is in fact the most difficult one.”

“Football consists of different elements: technique, tactics and stamina.
Stamina I have, tactics I have and technique I’ve always had. There are some people who might have better technique than me and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust and daring. In the tactical area, I think I just have more than most players. You probably can’t teach personal tactical insight. At most, if a person has some, you can perhaps influence it a little bit. It’s very hard.”

“I think people should be able to play in all different positions on the field…That’s why it is so important everyone listens when you have a tactical conversation. The left winger can’t go to sleep when Michels talks about the right back.”

“My attackers only have to run 15 metres, unless they’re stupid or sleeping.”

“Football should always be played beautifully, you should play in an attacking way, it must be a spectacle.”

“I want players who can make decisive moves in tiny spaces. I want them to do as little work as possible to save their energy for that one action.”

Paul Cooper

07875 283093

giveusbackourgame@gmail.com

http://www.footballfootball.org/

Little Wars

“As a coach, I like five – a –side because it’s easy to organise and it develops all the qualities that are important to the modern game. It’s fast, so it improves your vision, agility and movement and because you touch the ball so often, your technique improves too. Today, every player should be able to defend and attack so this game is essential for player’s development.”
Arsene Wenger


Child centred approach
Since Give Us Back Our Game began some two and a half years ago, many coaches have taken up the philosophy of a more child and player centred approach through a games based training programme using small sided games.
Many of the coaches had little experience of playing and coaching football and the games approach absorbed the children and let them develop in a fun way with the emphasis on play.
Many of these coaches were parents of a son or daughter in the team and had volunteered so that their child and friends could play.

There was no real selection policy and whoever was first through the door was selected. They soon came up against well drilled teams who proceeded to batter them on a weekly basis with double figure score lines.
Some coaches turned to the games approach purely in desperation. They felt guilty they didn’t have the so called knowledge of the ‘winners’ in the league and felt even more guilty because of the children losing every week and the mutterings on the sideline from parents. They were looking for something that was different than what was currently on offer and that was more child specific.
The games approach is long term, but they still saw early improvements in terms of fun for the children, improved decision making and technique.
I have visited some of these teams and the children play with an intensity and depth with fluid movement off the ball. They are totally immersed and their love for the game shines through.

Manuel Pellegrini
Chilean, Pellegrini is the coach for Spanish club Villarreal and finished 2nd last season in the top division in Spain.
In an article in the Champions magazine he explains his philosophy and why they never play 11v11 in training, but how all his tactics are worked out in small sided games of 5v5.

“In an eleven- a-side practice game, a full back will intervene against a winger an average of seven times. In ‘reduced- space’ football, they intervene 14 times and in a shorter time span. A striker in a practice game will have, on average, seven clear scoring chances; in ‘reduced’ football it is 30.”

Meanwhile in England at grassroots football, six years olds predominantly play 7v7 and 10 year olds play 11v11 on match day’s, based usually on just one training session a week.
When the FA launched mini soccer in the mid 90’s they stated that games be up to 7v7 with a recommendation that U7s and U8s play 4v4 or 5v5. That was largely ignored by leagues who introduced 7v7 at all ages from U7s to U10s.
A golden opportunity was missed by giving the leagues a loop hole in terms of formats. Leagues argued that more children would play by using the 7v7 format on marked out pitches, but it is just as easy to organise two games of 4v4 in the same space using marker cones.

Small sided games
Rinus Michels in Holland, the legendary Ajax and Dutch national coach of the ‘Total Football’ era in the seventies, realised that the decline in street football was having a major impact on the standard of players coming through.
Working with the KNVB he introduced a games based system using 4v4 in a number of conditioned games that emphasised different aspects of the game.
Children learned by playing.
Michels reasoned, "In simplified, modified games, players learn to be aware and to improvise, to concentrate, and to recognize the situation. Skills are important, of course, but the value of skills is to be able to use them efficiently in a fraction of a second. Our practices should be one quarter skill training and three quarters applying those skills in endless situations."

Michels chose 4v4 as it had all the elements of the 11v11 game in that you had options forward, to the sides and back, but in the simplest form.
4v4 was meant to be played without a keeper so that children could learn the game first before specialising.
Some countries add a goal keeper and play 5v5.

Research
Manchester United Academy adopted the 4v4 approach for their U9s Academy match day programme in favour of the standard 8v8 being played at other Academies.
Rick Fenoglio, co founder of GUBOG and a senior lecturer in exercise and sport science at Manchester Metropolitan University was asked to conduct a study of the pilot scheme which highlighted the benefits of the 4v4 approach.
The extensive research found the following when compared to the 8v8
– 135% - more passes
– 260% - more attempts on goal
– 225% - more 1 on 1 encounters
– 280% - more ‘tricks’ attempted

Some other work done by development coach Martin Diggle, while at Bolton Wanderers Academy, based on decision making while on the ball showed that in a ten minute game of line soccer there was an average of 23.5 decisions in a 4v4 game, compared with just 13.4 in a game of 6v6.


Benefits of and games approach with SSGs

· Just as street football was for a previous generation, small sided games are fun and foster a lifelong passion for the beautiful game
· Because it is so much fun, kids practise with a ball much more away from coaching and club sessions
· Play football to learn football
· Learn by doing
· Technique, football insight and communication are most effectively developed in game related situations
· Children naturally learn match situations by constant repetition and frequent ball contact.
· A small sided game maximises involvement in real football situations
· Freedom to fail
· Creativity & spontaneity
· More touches
· More involvement in the game
· Easy for the coach to set up
· The coach can easily observe where the players are in terms of their development
· A format that is age appropriate

“Liverpool practiced small-sided games every day and it was high-intensity stuff. We used to do a very light warm-up, jog around the field a couple of times to loosen the limbs, do a few stretches, put the cones down for goals and then go into five-a-side or eight-a-side.
It was the same every single day. There was no tactical work, none whatsoever. All the strategic stuff was done within the small sided games. Liverpool believed that everything we faced in five-a-sides would be encountered again on match day. That was why the five-a-sides were so competitive. Liverpool’s training characterised Liverpool’s play – uncomplicated but devastatingly effective.”
“Practising on smaller pitches, Liverpool were always going to play a short-passing game. We only trained with small goals so there was little long-range shooting. We passed the ball until we got close enough to score. The philosophy centred on passing, making angles and one-touch football.”
John Barnes

© Paul Cooper March 2009

giveusbackourgame@gmail.com

Constraints in children's football

"We didn't need a proper pitch, goalposts, kit, people to coach us; we threw down coats, played chaotic football in our street shoes, sharpening ball control and decision-making. All the greats will have known that experience, Matthews on the streets of Stoke, Pele growing up on the dusty roads of a railway junction in Brazil, Maradona in a deprived area of Buenos Aires. In this country, street football has long since disappeared. In its place we have a system that simply doesn't work well enough."
John Cartwright

Do constraints in the informal game help with football development?

The informal game that was played on the streets, parks and in the playgrounds by children of previous generations and to a lesser extent this generation, had many constraints in terms of where the game was played, the number, age and ability of the players and the equipment available.
Do these constraints help to produce the basics that are needed to develop more imaginative and creative players with good touch?
Is it beneficial that we bring some of these constraints into a more formal football environment?
The intention of this article is to challenge coaches to think out side the box and consider some more unorthodox methods.

In informal children’s football there are many geographical and social variants that play a part in shaping an individual. For example, would George Best of been the same player if he was born on a farm miles from anywhere rather than on an estate with hundreds of other children?

Places to play
The informal game can throw up a variety of playing surfaces including grass, concrete, tarmac, dirt, cobbles and Red Gra.
Often there were obstacles to avoid and dribble round.
Alan Hudson, the former Chelsea and Stoke mid-fielder played on a council -owned play area locally know as 'The Cage'.About the size of a 6 a side pitch which was gravel, strewn with broken bottles - good balance and courage were critical.

As a boy Hudson supported his local team Fulham and proudly wore their shirt during these kick-abouts. He was very particular about his clothing and was very careful to dribble around or chip the ball over any muddy puddles.Also all the other boys were bigger than him so he needed to be able to 'play' to compete.

Dave Ramzan the founder of Invicta Valiants, a football club for children with disabilities, based in Kent, gives an insight into some very varied pitch locations when he played as a boy.
“Although never playing football to a very high standard, we did play football back in the late 60's in some very odd places. In the holds of empty Thames river barges, under a motorway on a huge enclosed ramp holding up the road (it was very dark) and on bomb sites that were still plentiful during the 50's and 60's.
On many occasion we went down with twisted and skinned ankles after tripping over a brick sticking up out of the playing surface.
Street football was played on a cobbled street down by the river Thames, where the goal areas were the kerbs on each side of the street, and goals were marked out in chalk on the brick walls behind. On many occasions we would play on grass in Greenwich Park until dark, having to climb over the high fence after closing, then being chased off by the ‘Parkie’ (park keeper)."

Denis Begrkamp, the Arsenal and Dutch legend claims playing in the street helped the way he played.
“We played on stones. If you fell down, you hurt yourself, so you get your balance right. The first touch has to be right otherwise the ball bounces away.''

The great Pele believes that playing on a poor surface enhances player’s skills.
“I started playing on the street. Where I lived, the street wasn’t paved.
We used to play against kids from another street which was a little better than ours. Ours had rocks and holes, so we had the advantage.
A rough pitch helps a player to learn the skills.”

Number and ages of players
The number of players and the ages of those players varied enormously. You often had your close friends that you played with on a daily basis in the school playground or close to your home. Then perhaps at the weekend you would all go to the local park and play with other groups of children, perhaps ten or twenty aside.
The great Hungarian player, Puskas played hour after hour with his eight best friends on a bumpy pitch, barefoot and with a ball made from rags.
They played 5v4 with the two best players and the two worst on the team of four.
Then of course the weather was a factor for how many would turn up.

“I’d make for a piece if waste ground opposite our house where the boys from the neighbourhood gathered for a kick about. Coats would be piled for posts and the game of football would get under way. In fine weather it would be as many as 20 a side, in bad weather a hardened dozen or so made six a side.”
Stanley Matthews

Spurs coach Harry Redknapp states the case for games where many children played and how it helped dribbling skills.
“I feel there is a lack of talent coming through. Growing up, all we did, and all we knew, was football. We played on the estate every night until it was too dark. They are spending more money on grass-roots football, but I feel kids would get more out of playing with their mates four hours a night, 14 a side, so that when you got the ball you had to dribble it, otherwise you might not get it again for 10 minutes.”

The interesting thing here again is variety.
Ex-West Ham striker, Paulo De Canio explains how a large group of children playing in a small space gave him his characteristic dribbling style.

“From a technical standpoint, I couldn’t help but improve my skills. Anybody can trap and control a ball on a picture-perfect billiard table smooth pitch. But where I played, you had to learn how to control the ball no matter what, regardless of whether it bounced off the rubbish or skidded along the gutter. I learned how to dribble up steps, how to run non-stop for hours (there was no such thing as ‘out of bounds’) and how to thread my way through tight spaces (we played eleven-a-side on a pitch which would have been tight for a five-a-side). I guess much of my close control and dribbling ability originated on the Stenditoi”

What no bibs?
In the school playground every child is normally dressed in some kind of uniform such as a grey jumper or school sweatshirt. In kick-abouts in the park, the children normally wear their favourite team’s shirt, which make for a whole host of different colours on both teams.
With the lack of team identification, do children play with their head up more and is there greater verbal communication to compensate for the lack of bibs or team shirts?
Should we introduce some games in structured club practice sessions without the use of bibs?
Ernie Brennan, a grass roots coach in Kent had made some interesting observations at his team’s session.
“The under 14s boys I coach play a period in match training with no bibs. Initially I thought it would be good to raise another problem for them to solve and considering they play this format at school break time I was interested to see if they were anymore responsive in terms of movement. When played in the club coaching environment it works a treat. Subliminally, I think they naturally revert back to the school play ground format because their awareness was much sharper and movement off the ball was far more instinctive. I introduced a similar session to the under 14s girls and to create an additional problem I imposed a verbal communication ban. The outcome brings a multitude of problem solving ideas. The players start to read body language, senses are more alert and an alternative form of awareness and communication kicks in”

The ball
In formal junior football the rules are a size 3 ball for U7s and U8s, a size 4 ball from U9s to U14s and a size 5 ball for U15s and above.
Players from around the world have always been very creative when trying to find a ball to play with. Because of cost and accessibility, often balls were home made using rags, folded up socks or paper and tape.

Arguably the most skilful player of all, Maradona played with a variety of objects,

“If I was sent on an errand I would take with me anything that resembled a ball: it could be an orange, or scrumpled-up paper, or cloths. And I would go up the steps on to the bridge that crossed the railway, hopping on one foot, the right one, and taking whatever it was on the left, tac, tac, tac…That’s how I walked to school as well.”

In the UK the humble tennis ball was used by earlier generations, It could be tucked in a pocket and dribbled to and from school. In Scotland it produced a generation of ‘tanner ball players’. Many professional players thought that playing with a tennis ball improved their touch.

The great Sir Stanley Matthews reflects on his childhood.

“In those days everybody wanted to be a footballer and play for his local team.
I used to practise often against a wall with a tennis ball, not a big ball because we couldn’t afford it in those days. And because it was a small ball it improved my ball control.”

Another England legend, Jimmy Greaves, takes it even further.

“It wasn’t ideal but, looking back, those games with the tennis ball really helped develop my ball skills. The size of the tennis ball meant that I had to concentrate when it was at my feet. When shooting, I had to hit it just right, otherwise I might not make contact at all. As a consequence, my foot to eye coordination improved immeasurably and my general ball technique came on in leaps and bounds. When I came to play for the school with a proper leather football, I found making contact with the ‘sweet spot’ relatively easy.”

Denis Law also made use of the little ball on his way to school.
“We would play on the way to school with an old bald tennis ball – or a tin can if we didn’t have a ball – knocking it off the walls as we progressed, and then back home again in the afternoon. It was good practice for control and balance, because we usually had our school bags over our shoulders. The game we played was called ‘Three Lives’ We’d knock the ball against the wall and pick up the return. It was quiet tricky because you had to flick it the side and beat your opponent. It demanded close control, not to mention the ability to avoid various obstacles on the street, some of them left by the local dogs.”

Jackie Charlton did his best to conjure up a proper ball, but even he had to admit defeat and go back to the ever dependable tennis ball.

“For some reason or other, I ended up with the leather case of a ball – how I got it, I don’t know – but, unfortunately, I didn’t have an inner tube to go with it. A man told me that if I could find a pig’s bladder, it would do the job fine – but the butcher’s of Ashington looked at me as if I’d two heads when I told them what I wanted. So instead we learned our trade with tennis balls, like so many others did at the time. We played with tennis balls going to school, in the schoolyard, played with them on the way home, headed them against walls, had competitions in the street, five against five, ten against ten, twenty against twenty depending on how many wanted to play. I used to play with my brother Bob across the front yard at home, between the two brick walls, using the doors where the coal got delivered as our goalposts."

The ex-Leeds winger Eddie Gray didn’t even have the luxury of a tennis ball.

“Conventional balls, even tennis balls, were banned in the concrete jungle that was our playground – it was bang in the middle of the school buildings, framed by high walls with windows on all sides – so we had to make do with balls comprising a rolled up piece of paper inside a sock. The bonus was that if you could consistently achieve mastery of the ball in such circumstances, you had good cause to feel that you could do it in any circumstances.
After a while, my control of the ball – first touch, dribbling and passing – was something that I took for granted. I felt comfortable on the ball in most areas of the pitch.”

Do coaches kill creativity?
There are of course many fine coaches in the game, but also plenty of bad ones.
At an early age they can put a child off football and there is a case for young players to feel their own way into the game.

“Although I was attached to Juventus from the age of nine years, much of my development took place in the streets. It was there that I practiced and refined my 1 v 1 skills,”

said Roberto, who won seven championships for the “Old Lady” of Turin and represented Italy on 42 occasions. What troubles Roberto, who played alongside Michel Platini, Paolo Rossi, Zbigniew Boniek and other icons of the game, is the dominating style of many youth coaches. With the passion of a street fighter, he added:

“Young players need some time for self-expression, for spontaneity. Their coaches need to watch and listen more and instruct a little less”

Eddie Grey adds;

“These informal kick- abouts were a perfect way for boys to develop their ball skills. Things are different now. There is plenty of organised football, but whether those who supervise teams at schoolboy and youth levels give their players enough encouragement and freedom to play is another matter.
It is a question of learning to play before they learn to compete, and not the other way around.

Andy Roxburgh, the Scottish Football Association’s former Director of Coaching, sums it up best when he talks about the importance of player-development programmes that replicate the street-football culture.”

University study
Many of the examples on here are far removed from the proper game, eleven a side on a specified pitch size, but these constraints produce some very interesting results and opinions from both top players and grass roots coaches alike. Is variety key to development?
A recent study by Liverpool John Moores University found that “The Youth Academy players that went on to attain professional scholarship status at 16 years of age had accumulated significantly more hours in football specific playful activities (street football/free-play) between the ages of 6 and 12.
This was in addition to their normal Academy training

Should we be looking to condition more structured club session games to try and recreate some of these constraints that appear in street football/free-play?

Paul Cooper

07875 283093

http://www.footballfootball.org/

A Simple Game Part 2

“Simplicity is genius” - Bill Shankly

Pass & move
Manchester United legend Paddy Crerand tells a story about how every time Sir Matt Busby got together with Bill Shankly to talk about football, they would discuss it in such a simple way that any six year old listening could of easily understood what they were talking about.

The Liverpool way, ‘pass and move’ was built on a simple passing game that was honed by playing hours of five a sides and adapted small sided games. Shankly first experienced this playing with his fellow miners in his home village of Glenbuck. The village, which had a population of less than a thousand inhabitants managed to produce an incredible 50 professional players over 50 years.

Brian Hall, one of two players, along with Steve Heighway who were scouted by Shankly playing at their University, compared the learning he did at University with his experience at Liverpool’s training ground ;

“I spent 21 years of my life being educated and going from 1+1=2, to x+y=6 and then onto vector spaces and quantum theory. The higher up the educational ladder I got the more complex it became, but at Melwood they turned that philosophy upside down. The football teaching became less complex the further up I got. The game is essentially a very simple one."

Shankly was certainly not the first coach to adopt the ‘pass and move’ style. After the end of the 2nd World War the great Spurs coach Arthur Rowe had great success with his ‘push and run’ team.
It was all about passing the ball and then moving to create an angle, to find some space and keep the ball.

Adapted Games
Playing lots of games in training was great fun for the Liverpool players and Shankly would adapt the games to bring out the necessary training. For fitness and speed he had players play 3v3 on a pitch 45 x 25 yards. Players who could only last about five minutes were soon playing for thirty. When Shanks wanted players to work on their first touch he would have them play 5v5 on a small pitch so that they had to control the ball in an instant.
In Stephen Kelly’s biography of the great man he writes;

“Just about every morning whether it was wind, hail, rain or snow, he would slap a player on the back and say ‘Great to be a live, boys, all you need is the green grass and a ball.”

The emphasis on the 5 a sides were creativity and skill, but if some players were struggling there was always Shanks and his team of coaches on hand with some words of wisdom. Emyln Hughes explains further;
"People missed what it was all about. They would just see us do a bit of jogging then go straight into small groups for games of 5-a-sides, or maybe a bit of ball work. They never saw the little things that we were doing, teaching the players when to pass, how to move into space. Sometimes players would be corrected for passing to someone who was marked for instance. I was blessed as a player, I found it easy but some didn't and they had to be taught."

Small details made a difference. For example he would use cricket stumps for goal posts as he knew there would be lots of arguing as to whether it was a goal or not. It made it competitive and passionate.

John Barnes
Shankly legacy was passed on down through subsequent managers, Paisley and Fagin who were both coaches under him and Kenny Dalglish. John Barnes who played under Dalglish found the philosophy had not really changed; even years after Shankly had left the club.
“Liverpool practiced small-sided games every day and it was high-intensity stuff. We used to do a very light warm-up, jog around the field a couple of times to loosen the limbs, do a few stretches, put the cones down for goals and then go into five-a-side or eight -a-side.
It was the same every single day. There was no tactical work, none whatsoever. All the strategic stuff was done within the small sided games. Liverpool believed that everything we faced in five-a-sides would be encountered again on match day. That was why the five-a-sides were so competitive. Liverpool’s training characterised Liverpool’s play – uncomplicated but devastatingly effective.”

“Practising on smaller pitches, Liverpool were always going to play a short-passing game. We only trained with small goals so there was little long-range shooting. We passed the ball until we got close enough to score. The philosophy centred on passing, making angles and one-touch football.”

Spanish Lessons
Real Madrid coach, Manuel Pellegrini while at Spanish club Villarreal, was interviewed in the Champions magazine. Here he he explains his philosophy and why they never play 11v11 in training, but how all his tactics are worked out in small sided games of 5v5.
“In an eleven- a-side practice game, a full back will intervene against a winger an average of seven times. In ‘reduced- space’ football, they intervene 14 times and in a shorter time span. A striker in a practice game will have, on average, seven clear scoring chances; in ‘reduced’ football it is 30.”

The small sided game has all the ingredients of the eleven aside except the involvement is so much more concentrated. The players both attack and defend and are always involved in the game.
Back to Shankly in Liverpool, when he was not at the club he would often be outside playing football with the local kids. They would knock on his door and ask him out for a game. When Patrick Collins from the Daily Mail rang to ask for a quote, Shankly’s wife Nessie told him that he was out playing, Collins asked for how long and Nessie simply replied,

“Until he’s won of course!”

“We built Liverpool's training on exhaustion and recovery with little areas of two-a-side, three-a-side and five-a-side in which you work like a boxer, twisting and turning. Training was based on basic skills, control, passing, vision, awareness."
Bill Shankly

Paul Cooper

07875 283093

http://www.footballfootball.org/

A Ball and a Wall

“I also played about 500,000 games of ‘Spot’ against the front wall of the house. You had to hit a particular spot and if you missed you got a letter and started to spell out the word ’Spot’ You were out when you finally got the ‘T’.”
Phil Thompson – ex Liverpool & England

It is important that children learn the game, not just at organised training sessions but also on their own. Training sessions cannot be a substitute for the fun we had as kids with a ball and a wall, for that is where you learn about yourself and indelibly stamp your own identity of the player you want to be

Waterloo

After the battle of Waterloo in 1815 when the Duke of Wellington’s allied army defeated Napoleon, the Iron Duke uttered the immortal words, “The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.”

Fast forward some one hundred and fifty years and another English legend, Sir Bobby Charlton said of England’s one and only football achievement, “The World Cup wasn’t won (in 1966) on the playing fields of England. It was won on the streets.”

This probably says more about the class system than anything else, but at least it got the same result for the country albeit with vastly contrasting tactics.

The 1966 side won the Jules Rimet trophy playing a 4-3-3 formation, (Sir Alf’s wingless wonders) where as the 1815 squad won it using a few more players, in fact some 55,000 infantry, cavalry and cannon.Playing fields v the streetsThere is a point to all this waffle and I know only too well that I have managed to bore many coaches who have logged onto the website’s discussion forum about the sorry demise of street football and the fact that all the greats in the game, Pele, Maradona, Zindane and Cruyff all learnt their trade on the streets and were polished and finished off on the playing fields of pro clubs. Children still practice on their own and play street/playground football, but nowhere near as much as the last generation.

There is only so much you can do at group training, even if you have a ball per player and lots of small-sided games and touches. Then when they are older and you are doing more tactical work, they will spend less time on the ball.

An hour a day keeps the defender away

It is often said that after the golden age of learning, which I think is up to about 14 or 15 years of age, the improvement in technique from then on is negligible, codswallop!

I am over half a century and my technique is better now than when I played (admittedly at the very, very bottom of the playing pyramid) because I touch the ball more now, with the odd kick about at training with the boys, staff football games, with my son and doing demos.

My son is fifteen and over the last couple of months he has gone alone to a nearby car park for a minimum of an hour a day, nothing new there, but he does what he wants to do, with his favourite music playing through his ear piece. I would say that he has improved more as a player in these last couple of months than over the last three years. And it is not just his touch that has improved, but also his speed, his power, his co-ordination, his vision, his accuracy, his balance, he has quicker feet and naturally his confidence has grown.

Of course I would expect him to improve but not by so much.I think the key is not just the amount of touches but also that every single movement and every single touch is created because the player wants to do it that way. There are no interfering coaches, showing a better way and also no judgemental remarks from teammates. Everything is off the cuff and helps the player understand who he is and stamps his own individuality as a player away from both the team and coach. Sure football is a team game, and that is the part he learns on the playing field.

Games

If you give a child a ball and a wall he will inevitably make up his own games, whether it be, knock it against the wall with the right foot, one bounce and then against the wall with the left foot and so on. If there is a wall behind as well, it could be volleying a ball against the wall, taking the return with the thigh before flicking it over your head and volleying the ball before it bounces, shooting style, against the other wall, perhaps while you are listening to your favourite music on the ipod, be it The Who, Britney Spears or Perry Como, whatever takes your fancy and whatever works for you.

There are countless games and little drills you can make up, the important thing is you make them up yourself and use your imagination, a word that has all but disappeared from the football language.

Creating the atmosphere

So what can you do as a coach to encourage your players to practice individually, away from the playing field?

It is too negative just to set some homework and tell the kids if they don’t do it they won’t improve.

The first thing is to create an atmosphere and culture of experimentation and creativity. Make it fun, make it beautiful, and make this game mystical. Yes we need to know about the 4-4-2 and the 4-3-3 and closing down an opponent but equally we must talk about the soul and rhythm of our beautiful game.

Because of you and the experiences they have with you as a coach, the kids should want to get hold of a ball at every opportunity and dash outside. You can also help practically by perhaps once a week taking any interested kids, never force them, to a car park or somewhere that is safe and has a wall, the outside of a prison is pretty good for that, (joke). Sit in your car, put on the stereo and play your latest CD, sit back and watch the magic show unfold and you will see your players as you have never seen them before

"When I played football," he says, "I just played. I didn't think about it. I found it easy. I taught myself how to play, knocking a ball about, up against a wall. You never see anybody doing it now.
Stan Bowles – QPR & England

Paul Cooper

07875 283093

http://www.footballfootball.org/

Player turned coach

“I am grateful to my father for all the coaching he did not give me.”
Ferenc Puskas

Apart from having kids my life has been a bit of a disaster. Failure at school and jobs I disliked has taken their toll. Playing football ended in a goal mouth scramble in a Reading Combination second division game when my manhood came under swift, clinical surgery from their centre forward’s size elevens.
Watching football was a poor substitute and the childhood memories had begun to fade.
When my son was six he became interested in football and we began to kick a ball around together. When I saw an article in the paper that the local football club where looking to start a junior section, I immediately offered my help.

Within a short time I and a young mum of one of the other boys were running the juniors. We hadn’t a clue what we were doing but agreed that as long as we put the children’s fun first, we couldn’t go far wrong.

We made it up as we went along - everybody pitched in and we all had a great time.
I became a coach for the under sevens and took my FA level two coaching badge. Despite some fantastic people, the course could not be further from my experiences playing football with my friends all those years before.
If this was the way forward, the children’s game was in trouble.

The young mum was great at organising trips and we had a memorable one at the Match of the Day show in Birmingham.
She had hired a coach and one poor lad, was sick before the coach had even left the club car park.
I could sympathise as the only thing I did nearly as much as playing football was being travel sick. I was sick on a cabin cruiser going through a lock on the river Thames at Goring. I vomited into the sea from a pedalo off Weymouth beach, but saved my best for cross channel ferries.

During one such crossing over to France on a dreadful old tub without stabilisers, I was so ill that a priest on board asked my parents if they wanted him to give me the last rites.
When we finally landed my dad picked up my pale emaciated body and carried me to the car, realising that for the first night camping was out and I should be put straight to bed in a local hotel.
I was painfully thin as a child and looked ill even when in the best of health.
I was put to bed in a huge double bed, a tiny white face peeping out over the starched sheets.
When I was being sick I made a noise similar to the death rattle, but my powers of recovery were nothing short of astonishing for a ten year old.
The rest of the family were going down to the restaurant to eat and wondered if I wanted anything bringing to the room.

“Well may be a little soup followed by steak and chips and ice cream,” was my reply. I was back, had come away from the light and ready with my brother to take on the French at football in the campsites of the Loire Valley.

Arriving at the show, we had a lovely lad called Robert Lee who went on to become a very accomplished goalkeeper.
He was obsessed in making sure he got the best value for the £4.50 he had brought for gifts.
He wondered up and down the aisles picking up various objects and asking. “How much is this?” and “Do I have enough left for these?”
He was so focussed on his target that we lost him twelve times. The P.A. announcer was becoming hoarse having to bark out every five minutes, “Will a representative of the junior football club from Gloucestershire please come to missing persons.”

There was a stand at the show and in the centre on velvet plinth was the most famous orb in the country.
It was guarded by two burly security guards who looked like extras from the Sweeney.
I was looking at some old football books on one stall when I was tapped on the shoulder and a little voice chirped, “How much is this?” I gasped in horror as standing behind me was Robert holding aloft the Holy Grail of English football. Behind him was a hue and cry of security guards and red faced men in blazers shouting “treachery!”

For a couple of minutes the nation’s heritage stood in the balance. So great were the repercussions that to the south west a body of men buried deep beneath a hillside under Cornish sod began to stir. The Knights of the Round Table, who managed to sleep through the Battle of Britain, were enquiring of King Arthur, “Is it time?”
The crisis was avoided and the nations treasure was placed back on the plinth and a nice man in a blazer gave Robert a pen and I lent him 62p so he could by a pair of Ryan Giggs shin pads.

Most of my memories of coaching the team from U7s to U18s were about off the field activities. They went through a rather odd, Britney Spears, phase at U12s and 13s.
The team talk at away matches was replaced by a bizarre ritual. A large poster of Britney was fixed to the away dressing room wall and the ghetto blaster was yanked up to a Spinal Tap number eleven setting and they all went crazy, cavorting around the confined space to ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’.

This unusual warm up was far more effective than me droning on about the team’s defensive responsibilities as we went on an unbeaten run.
We held a fund raising night where the boys had to cook, serve and provide after dinner entertainment to their parents.

They did a great job with the spaghetti bolognaise and chose for the entertainment Bingo and the obligatory Britney Spears look alike competition.
Some of the boys took it all a little too seriously with makeup, wonder bras and tight grey skirts. I caught some of the parent’s troubled stares, which appeared to say, “I thought he was meant to be teaching them about 4-4-2 and the off side rule?”
When we finished our last season together at under 18s, before the boys went their separate ways to go to University, to work or gap year trips abroad, they all went on one last adventure together on holiday to Turkey.

I was a bit apprehensive as I met the coach from the airport and as they climbed down from the bus they had brought back with them five tattoos and two black eyes.
Idol worship, cross dressing, being able to make spag bol, tattoos and black eyes, proved that I had done a sterling job in preparing these young men for modern society.
When the boys came home from their foreign jaunts and from University in the holidays. Many of them would come to see my son and meet at our house. They would often go out for a kick about down at the local rec. The sound of them leaving the front door, the laughter and the ball bouncing on the pavement as they ran to their game brings the magic flooding back.

Paul Cooper

07875 283093

giveusbackourgame@gmail.com

http://www.footballfootball.org/

Voices from the Playground

The shrinking world of children’s play

The sound is unmistakable, a continuous babble of noise, laughter, screams, shouts and curses. The noise from the school playground is unlike any other and for us adults it is good for the soul. The sound of children playing however appears to become less year on year as restrictions through health and safety, modern culture and the school curriculum eat away at important play time.

“If children don't play, their minds don't grow. Play is where they learn to make their own decisions, trust their own judgement, set their own targets. It's where they learn to get along with other kids, meet triumph and disaster, and then come home for tea. Adults can help by helping them find somewhere to play, sorting out the boundaries, being handy with the plasters if something goes wrong. But otherwise we should leave them to it!”
Sue Palmer (author of Toxic Childhood)

By Paul Cooper

The lunch hour myth

The length of time that children now have for break is diminishing.
In a study by Peter Blatchford & Ed Baines between 1990 & 1995 and later updated in 2006, lunchtimes have been reduced by around 30% and afternoon breaks have been scraped altogether in many schools.
A further 5% of schools quizzed in 2006 said they were planning to make further cuts in ‘play time’.
A recent report in the Times says that the standard lunch hour is now down to forty minutes in schools.
By the time children have eaten their lunch that leaves very little time for play.
Many of the top footballers learned their trade in the school playground and took steps to maximise playing time.
Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool and England midfield player in his excellent award winning autobiography explains;

“School held limited appeal: I sat in class, longing for play-time because there was always a match on in the playground. I loved dinner-time because it lasted an hour, which meant a longer match. I abandoned hot dinners as they wasted precious minutes. Eventually I asked my mother for packed lunches. Speed was vital at dinner- time. I ate the packed lunch while playing or wolfed it down running back into class.”

This incident would have happened in the late 80s, so if he had been born twenty years later the playground match would have been twenty minutes less or an hour and forty minutes less footie time a week.
The Irish international Paul McGrath who played for Manchester United and Aston Villa was brought up in an orphanage and their meanness with food meant there was more football time, “At school, the other kids had lunch; we just brought jam sandwiches from the orphanage. We kicked a ball while they ate.”

Playground games

Children have been playing street games for centuries, and many of these have found their way into the school playground. Games from the medieval times are still being played, handed down from one generation to the next. Some are modified, some forgotten and new ones invented.
Peter and Iona Opie in the 1960s travelled throughout the UK making a note of all these many games that children played and put them into the classic 1969 publication ‘Children’s Games in Street and Playground’.
Many of the games are still played today, although some have been banned on health and safety grounds. Favourites include Grandma’s Footsteps, What’s the Time Mr.Wolf, Stuck in the Mud, Tag and British Bulldog.
There are even pre-game games for picking sides such as Rock, Paper Scissors, One Potato - Two Potato and Dips.
There are also numerous ball games played in the playground with football the most common.
Some games have seasons while others are short lived by some sections of the playground. “When a tremendous craze for Jacks swept the playground in 1973 I asked the boys if they had tried playing. All of them nodded. ‘Did you like it?’ ‘Not enough fun in it,’ said one, ‘not enough action.’ Iona Opie observed in her delightful book, The People in the Playground.
It isn’t just the games, as there is also a rich culture of language, rhymes, jokes, riddles and sayings.
With less children being let out to play in the streets, the play time in the playground becomes very significant.

Banning ball games

Sarah Thomson from Keele University compiled a study in 2000 on playground games. Of the schools she surveyed, half had banned football from the playground.
Other ball games have been banned across the countries as well as tag and even just running in the playground.
In Bracebridge Heath Primary School near Lincoln, kiss-chase, along with other games that involve physical contact has been banned. Children are no longer allowed to even link arms.
Meanwhile a new ‘state –of- the- art’ city academy, school in Peterborough, costing £46.4 million, has no play ground.
Headmaster Mr McMurdo said the main aim of not having a playground at the school was to help children’s learning. He told BBC news: “This is a massive investment of public money and I think what the public want, is maximum learning.”

Mile Delap, the project manager for the new school said, “For a school of this size, a playground would have had to be huge. That would have been almost uncontrollable. We have taken away an uncontrollable space to prevent bullying and truancy.”
Meanwhile a mum whose fourteen year old son is about to attend the school, said that he was devastated he would not be able to kick a ball around at lunchtime.
Another city academy, built without a playground, the Unity on Teesside, and was reportedly modelled on a Tuscan village (?) was found by Ofsted to be failing.
The lack of a playground was contributing to ‘the negative attitude of the pupils’ so one was hastily built.

'However much children may need looking after, they are also people going about their own business within their own society.'
Peter & Iona Opie


Give Us Back Our Game conducted their own survey and found that out of one hundred primary schools across the UK, a third had banned football and other ball games from the school playground.
Of those schools that let children play football, many restrict children to a rota system so most classes play just once a week on a designated part of the play ground.
One has to understand that the playground is used not just by children wanting to play football, but more provision should be made for those that want to run around.
With obesity at alarming rates and one million children in the UK diagnosed with some kind of mental illness, the importance of play can’t be emphasised enough.

Playground voices

There is such a wide range of experiences from the GUBOG survey, some children are very frustrated with their school’s lack of understanding while other schools bend over backwards to give the children what they want.
Nine year old Jack from Scotland brought a small ball into his school playground last year and started an impromptu game (football has been banned from his school’s playground)
“I lost 15 minutes of Christmas Party time for playing football in the playground”
A double whammy for the unfortunate Jack.

One incident that highlights the passion children have for playing games on their own terms happened at a primary school in Gloucestershire after the headmistress banned football in the playground.
The children staged a demonstration one lunch time when over seventy children marched around the play ground chanting “We want our football, we want our football.” while swinging their school sweat shirts above their heads, the same way South American football fans swing their scarves.
The headmistress was furious and gave the ring leaders detention.

‘On the big wall the girls were playing two-balls and donkey in a lackadaisical fashion, and round the corner the boys were playing football in the traditional football area with whatever vaguely spherical objects they could muster: chiefly rolled-up gloves.”
Iona Opie – The People in the Playground




For others the playground experience was a positive one. Charlie Cooper now studying a degree in sports science at Exeter University says of his days at primary school, “We played football every break time in the school playground with a small ball, but Friday’s was the special day. As long as we wore our football kit, the school would let us play on the field, all year round. We would pass each other notes in class about what we thought would be the best teams. Those times were very special.”

Tony Whelan, Manchester United’s assistant academy manager U9s-U16s tells how important football in the playground was for him.
“You could not bring a ball into school but you could hire one, so all the kids would pool their threepenny bits, knock on the teacher’s door, pay for the ball and a game would begin. A typical day at school would be a session before the bell rang more football at lunch and break-time, followed by an hour after school before the school gates were shut.”

Children’s play
The school playground is probably the last bastion of childhood and childhood culture and should be maintained. We all have our own stories and memories of games that we played and mostly those are happy ones.
Now play and sport is led by adults for children. There are many very good coaches but they are not children anymore and can very quickly forget what it was like to be a six or ten year old.
You know it’s not working when a child tugs your sleeve and asks, “When can we play a game?”
Children can be brutally honest and we may need to give them more responsibility and empower them to think for themselves, give them space so they can be creative.
We don’t always have all the answers.

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